If ever there was a competition for controlling your own emotions, I would win by a landslide.
I let my anger dig into my hands.
The nails of mine, sharpened into claws.
I had reversed almost all of the transformation.
I moved slowly towards the wall, careful about the pressure I was letting out somewhere in the 7th to 8th circle mana currently, a side effect of being drowned in dragon summoning mana.
My feet were heavy, and my mind sagged, not only from the anger, but the feeling I missed something while I was sleeping, not like an event in the outside world, more like I didn't heal properly.
I stepped up onto the wall, to see the monsters waiting in silence, nearly bowing their heads to me in defference.
Some could feel the magic coming off of me.
So I got to work.
I jumped down and located Aura.
She was slumped against a wall.
She had a few broken bones, and some blunt force trauma, but she would be okay.
"Aisha, heal her."
She didn't even speak as she moved to begin healing Aura.
I walked to Charlotte.
The beasts that did not move out of my way I cut down.
Flayed them like multiple scissors flying across paper.
The rest of the beasts began to shuffle in silence as I parted the horde to see Charlotte.
"Hello."
"Lucas, you're-"
"Alive, and just about ready to kill every beast and get out of here."
I wasn't angry, truly I wasn't but I was annoyed with how long we had spent here in the labyrinth.
"Um, we can't."
"These monsters are the problem right?"
"Ye-"
Before she finished I dropped a massive curse spell.
The meld of curse, thunder and star magic, turned the eagle horse flesh abomination was reduced to a bubbling mess of goop.
Dark thunderstar was a spell that used mana as a base, but could be further enhance through lifespan sacrifice, naturally I offered the lives of the other creatures.
I then began to walk over to the other side.
The other 5th tier monster waited as if awaiting sentencing at the hands of a judge.
I stared at a battered and bruised Claudia.
"Die."
Instead of offering it a swift death like with Charlotte, this thing was going to suffer.
For now I wasn't able to use the theoretically stronger version of the spell I had designed.
As the effects of the mana began to wear off, so did the fog in my head and slumber affecting me.
People passed out holding their breath without realizing it.
I watched as the char-broiled lizard tried to escape.
No doubt it was sent here by the tyrant.
This many dead monsters?
Only an extremely intelligent monster, could put something like this together.
As the chameleon thing tried to run, people also began to move, understanding that the pressure they felt was gone.
I reached out to the lizard, impaling it with light javelins.
Normally my attacks wouldn't do this much damage, but the dragon blood transformation had yet to subside due to my injuries and emotional flare up at my awakening.
I could control the thought process, and now with my head clear, I was able to disconnect from my emotional center.
I still very much had claws, and decided it would be best for the time being to bury the lizard, a warning for what was to come for the Tyrant.
After sending the chameleon lizard thing on same day delivery to Nyx above, I walked to the now fully unconscious, but decently healed Aura.
I brushed my hands along her face moving the hair out from in front.
I grabbed under her knees and back and carried her back to the camp.
I could feel the eyes staring at me.
"Lucas."
"I am her knight, leave her to me."
"Your-"
I could see my silver eyes reflected in Rose's eyes.
"Eyes?"
"Y-yes."
"Aurelia likely already told you yes?"
"She did."
"Then I will be taking her back for healing."
With that I departed the wall, and began to make my way to the room I had destroyed the bed.
I created a new one, pulling bedding from the nearby clean cots.
I laid Aura down and raised a silence and cloaking spell.
'Alea, wake the two of us up if anyone tries to enter.'
'Daddy, is Mommy Aura okay?'
'She just needs rest, so do I.'
'Don't go to long okay Daddy?'
'Sure.'
I sat down in the chair in the room and slept.
***
*Rose's Pov*
What the hell was that.
Aurelia wasn't lying when she said his transformed form is a little terrifying.
She had told us about the silver eyes.
Honestly, it was terrifying.
His eyes looked down on me as if I was prey.
His voice tone was so cold that it told me rejection of his words would make him kill me.
Everything within me told me to run, run and never look back.
How did Aurelia and Charlotte find it within themselves to shake that off?
I guess something about spending time with him comforted them when he took that form.
I know he deep down was caring for Aurelia.
But another part of me was afraid.
So I locked away his room for everyone, but Charlotte.
Aside from my obvious fear however, I found him cool and actually godlike.
It was calming standing next to him, watching him look over the wall.
He looked like everything was already in his grasp and it was.
The pressure dealt to us, was far stronger to the enemies.
They understood they stood no chance in front of the monster that was Lucas.
Honestly I have no idea how he managed to put off such an aura.
He had three 5th tier beasts quaking.
They bowed their heads to death.
It wasn't even like they could put up a fight.
They recognized him as far superior to the point that fighting and running was useless.
What kind of monster throws away it's instincts in defference to a person.
Or maybe they didn't.
Maybe submitting themselves they thought to survive.
What an unfortunate blunder.
Lucas is a relentless hunter.
And a hunter must hunt.
***
*Claudia's Pov*
His power was too much.
It was too exaggerated.
His wakening caused everyone to freeze up.
I could feel the power coming off of him.
It was like looking at the emperor or empress.
He was far out of our league.
He walked over to Charlotte's fight before turning the nearly peak stage 5th tier beast into nothing.
The curse magic he had used was gruesome, taking the surrounding beasts' lives as collateral damage.
Just what had happened?
Then as if he hadn't just committed those actions he walked over to me.
He began to extend his hands to me.
He looked at my wounds, my face.
I couldn't tell, but it seemed like he got angrier.
Or at least, he became more aggressive.
Whatever the case was, the monster I was tasked with beating was encased in a ice-steel formation.
It was the most jarring fight.
The monster within was definitely dead.
The shrinking coldsteel had certainly killed it.
I was certain he chose ice, as it would preserve the thing's suffering.
And then he turned on the terrifier.
The thing that had given everyone goosebumps.
The lizard stared at Lucas.
That's when he released the aura.
I wasn't sure if he was going to try to bait the monster into attacking or not.
However, the monster had some intelligence, and tried to run.
Unfortunately that was never in the play book.
Lucas skewered him with what looked like a smaller light attribute version of what Aurelia used to take down the other monster.
He then tore through the body of the lizard with his bare hands.
The lizards body came apart like someone who had used their spoon through pudding.
The body - or what was left of the lizard tore away like a doll.
It was ruthless.
Then he began to move towards Aurelia.
He flicked of the blood on his hands.
He burned away the rest of it away, as he scooped her up into his arms.
It was like looking at a god taking someone away to a higher plane.
It was different, the feeling he gave off was different.
He stood watching Rose, and for a moment as I stared into his eyes, as she did.
We both recoiled.
There was nothing in there, but absolute clarity and imposition.
His words were not to be ignored, and were orders.
We weren't people at that moment, we were beings to do his bidding.
It was terrifying.
I'm sure Rose felt the same.
Perhaps this is what Aurelia meant by transformation.
The silver eyes of his, connotated some kind of change, that elevated his status beyond that of a mere human.
It intrigued me.
Maybe, that relaxed Charlotte and Aurelia though.
They were safe with him, they knew he would never hurt them.
Aisha also experienced his change, but I'm not sure how the poor girl felt as all she did was get called over and made to heal Aurelia.
Either way, no one was going to question his rule now.
But I was okay with it, the transformations never last long, according to the both of them.
On top of that, he had sufficiently scared the living hell out of everyone when he woke up.
I guess he was just something completely out of reach by human standards alone.
***
*Aisha's Pov*
I have never been or felt so alien when with Lucas.
I had felt a little alien during the professor incident.
I had heard about his actions and saw for myself his injuries.
It was such a different feeling from the normally, kind, and strict mentor feeling he gave off.
Now, however, it was different.
I felt like I was being watched by my parents, or the emperor and empress.
The pressure was greater than the tyrant.
It was too much.
I sat and healed Aura, at his command, but I'll never forget the anger on his face as he checked on her condition.
Or maybe I was rationalizing my feelings.
When we all watched hiim speak to Rose, there was no semblance of fear or anger in his eyes.
Just a simple duty.
He kind of reminded me of when he was swinging his sword at the sword grounds.
It was familiar and yet not at the same time.
I apparently was exhausted however, because as soon as Lucas left back to his room, I passed out.
Well, me and a lot of other people.
Anyone who had passed out in the battlefield below got front row seats to watching Lucas.
As for anyone who passed out from holding their breath in front of Lucas, they were quickly awakened.
As for Rose, Claudia, and Charlotte, they all had different looks to me.
In terms of who took it best, it was definitely Charlotte, then Claudia, then Rose.
That's not to say they weren't scared, or that they were only scared.
Only that Charlotte was able to move about the most with his pressure bounding on top of each of them.
***
*Charlotte's Pov*
It was a breath of fresh air when Lucas walked to me.
The beasts finally stopped attacking giving me much needed breathing room.
When I tried to talk to him, he was quick to cut me off, different from most of our other interactions where, he would sit and listen to me talk on and on.
I was okay with it, clearly he was focused on a more important objective currently.
Aurelia's complete and utter safety, nothing else would suffice.
In that respect, he did only what was needed.
He removed everything.
What 5th tier monsters, and 40 odd regular beasts, meant nothing to him.
I felt happy knowing that the horse monstrosity I was facing died at his hands.
It was relieving, and cathartic to see Lucas moving, and although not completely, still move for my sake.
His eyes told many stories today.
He was angry, somewhat, but more than that, he had a job to do.
And he got it done effieciently, aside from the walking.
However, I believe that was intentional too.
I mean people may pass out if he had blitzed the 3 boss creatures so fast.
That also meant he was thinking about everyone else too.
I found comfort in knowing, despite the transformation it was still the Lucas we all knew.